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22 June 2012

Anglicans were present for the first time at a G20 summit calling for progress and more actions for food security, sustainable development and Disaster Risk Management.

Revd Canon Habacuc Ramos-Huerta, the provincial secretary of the church in Mexico participated as the Anglican Alliance’s representative. His role has been essential to open up this new involvement of the Anglican Church. He has been actively participating in all the proposed activities and as a result we are in a good position to continue our work with the G20 Mexican presidency that continues until the end of this year.

The Anglican Alliance strongly welcomes the opportunity to take part in the G20 discussions. Revd Ramos- Huerta includes in his report the feedback from members of civil society organisations to the final G20 declaration and the activities in which he took part.

However, a number of NGOs found the declaration lacking specific and decisive actions to respond to urgent issues such as food insecurity. They welcomed the inclusion of development and environment themes on an agenda that has been dominated by financial issues, but said there is a great need to push them forward.

The general declaration included commitments of the leaders to strengthen the recovery of the world economy and to work towards the promotion of growth and employment, in particular for the youth. Regarding food security, they reaffirmed their commitment to remove export restrictions and extraordinary taxes on food that will be used for humanitarian purposes and to address commodity price volatility. They welcomed the focus of the Mexican presidency on an inclusive green growth. In line with this they committed to achieve successful outcomes at the next meeting of the parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 18) that this year is taking place in Qatar.

The G20 declaration made an important commitment to Disaster Risk Management (DRM), which is one of the Anglican Alliance’s priorities. They recognised the impact that DRM can have in preventing disasters and protecting populations and assets. In a side event during the summit, The World Bank and the Mexican government presented a joint publication: “Improving the Assessment of Disaster Risks to Strengthen Financial Resilience”. This report gathers the experiences of G20 and other countries and is one of the initiatives of the Mexican government to incorporate DRM in the G20 agenda. It also is promoting the following activities:

July – The Understanding Risk Forum in Cape Town will propose a technical discussion around the implementation of DRM methodologies.

October – a seminar will be organised jointly with the World Bank in Tokyo.

November – Mexico will present the proposal of methodologies developed by the World Bank at the third Ministers of Finance and Governors meeting in November.

The Anglican Alliance will seek to work with the Mexican presidency to ensure that Anglicans are involved in this important process of finding ways to reduce risk.

The Anglican Alliance will continue to raise Anglicans’ demands in international fora like the G20, where policies that affect the developing world are shaped. The Mexican presidency will finish on the 30th of November and the Anglican Alliance appreciates the work and openness of the Liaison Office with civil Society Organizations from the Secretary of Foreign Relations which facilitated our involvement.

In the picture from left to right: Mr Miguel Díaz Reynoso, Director of the Liaison Office with civil Society Organisations from the Secretary of Foreign Relations; Revd Canon Habacuc Ramos Huerta; Mr Edgar Cubero, Deputy Director of the Liaison Office with civil Society Organisations

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